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Biodiversity is referred to the variety of living forms found in different ecosystems including variability observed in life forms from different sources such as air, water and land. However, biodiversity all around the globe is fast declining. Following are the major causes:
• Habitat loss and fragmentation – uncontrolled and unsustainable human activities such as slash, deforestation, mining, burn agriculture and urbanization causes habitats of different entities to be destructed or altered. This leads to the breakup of habitat into smaller pieces affecting the migration of animals and also a decline in the genetic exchange between populations resulting in a decline in the species.
• Co-extinction – One species is connected to the other in native habitat in an intricate network. Hence, the extinction of one species causes the extinction of the other wherein they are associated with each other in an obligatory connection. For instance, the extinction of host would cause the extinction of parasites.
• Over-exploitation – Humans have caused species to get extinct or endangered due to over-exploitation and over-hunting of different plants and animals. (extinction of passenger pigeons and tigers)
• Alien species invasions – Intentional introduction of non-native species into a particular habitat causes the extinction of indigenous species. Example – Nile perch caused the extinction of more than two hundred species of native fish of Lake Victoria in Kenya when they were introduced in the lake.